Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Amazing Journeys by Isabel de Moraes Rodrigues

The beginning of the end. A journey of discoveries, experiences, learning, growth. A journey of conflicts, debates, compromises, inclusiveness. And as the end is necessarily approaching, so is the time for the inevitable organization and sharing of what’s been accomplished – the highlights, the epiphanies, the changes of perspective. Today we were challenged to start shaping up – collective – our accomplishments. And oh, what a defiant task it is to do so in a group of 18 extraordinary people that are passionate about their craft and have so much to say and contribute. Today, we were challenged to summarize and organize our learning in two different fronts: the TYA performance we are preparing to share with Burn Oak Junior School in Sidcup as well as our DaY Dreamers Teams presentations that aim at sharing the knowledge we’ve gathered along the past two weeks. It’s fantastic to notice how much we’ve been exposed to and the many different directions and shapes both presentations could take. We just have so much to share now!

And tonight, while we were having the most pleasant experience of watching Julius Cesar being performed for the second time at the Globe – but this time at the Outside In Theater, the small indoor space lightened by candles from where we could almost feel the actor’s breathing, I could not help thinking of how the challenge they went through while having to adapt their grand outdoor performance from a huge stage to a tiny indoor stage surrounded by audience members with whom they could actually make eye contact with and deliver their lines to is similar to ours. To keep the high energy level of the production, to be faithful to the nature of their work as performers at the same time as they were challenged to limit their voices and physical actions to the reduced space after only four hours of rehearsal can mirror our demanding task of honoring all we’ve learned and discovered in a thirty minutes presentation: how to include all that’s essential, honoring everyone’s voices at the same time as we create a piece that arouses the interest and engages our audience? This can most definitely be an exhausting endeavor, but I’m sure the results will make all of us proud! As we certainly know the cast of Julius Cesar was extremely proud at the end of their show! Any doubts? Here is a historic shot of the DaY Dreamers of 2014 with the cast at the Swam after the show!!